Adda52

1. What’s your Elevator pitch?

Adda52 is the largest poker portal in India, aiming to grow the game and provide the best poker experience in India.

2. What’s your history? How did you get together? Mohit Agarwal and I are childhood friends. We met at DPS R.K Puram School in Delhi. We kind of kept in touch when I moved abroad, but only started to discuss business ideas on one of my trips back to India. A year later I quit my job and we started a company in the space of CCTV analytics and integration with RFID based systems. We successfully exited the company in 3 years, but we didn’t want to let go of our working relationship, and so we co-founded another start-up in the online poker space. 3. Tell us about your team? Our team comprises 120 young and energetic individuals who continuously challenge us to break with tradition. They see opportunities where others see roadblocks. We are a process driven organization with a flat structure and empowered individuals. 4. What is your culture and how do you hire?

We like people to participate in work areas other than their own. We emphasise team ownership rather than a strong leader, and we have implemented the Agile Methodology philosophy throughout the business.

5. What are your interests outside of work?

I like spending time with family and friends. My favourite leisure activity is a beach holiday.

6. What has been your biggest challenge?

The biggest challenge that I have faced is the negative perception of poker and card games in India. Although people around me have changed and appreciate what we have done, we are still a long way from changing the perception of the game.

7. Between you and me, what’s it like working with Velo?

It’s been great. They have truly acted as advisors by drawing from their global business experience in online gaming.

8. What advice would you have for a start-up founder?

Follow your gut – but look at the data first.

9. What is one thing that keeps you up at night?

I worry that a negative perception spike might overshadow the legality of Poker in India.

10. What would you say is the biggest lesson you have learned while running Adda52.com?

Always have your eye on the burn rate and understand the customer life cycle value.

11. What was technically the most challenging part of developing Adda52.com?

To choose the right technology for UI. As the online world evolves, UI technology changes rapidly and you have to be at the cutting edge, like shifting from flex to HTML5 and then to angular HTML5 and then to Native app development.

12. What do you know now that you wish you knew before you started Adda52.com?

How hard it is to acquire users if mainstream online channels like Google and Facebook are closed to you.

13. You have recently announced an exciting sale to Delta. How do you see yourselves transitioning into a large group?

This remains to be seen! We are currently in discussions with the management about how to best integrate into the group.

14. We mentioned elevators – Who would you choose to be stuck in a lift with?

My twin daughters and my wife.

15. You are based in Delhi. What’s that like as a place to get a start-up going?

Delhi is exciting. It has a vibrant start-up culture, probably the best in India after Bangalore. In fact, our area is known as Silicon Gully (Udyog Vihar) and is home to many prominent Indian start-ups like Snapdeal, Paytm, Zomato, Jabong, Foodpanda and Adda52, amongst others.

16. Aside from yours, what’s the one business you wish you had founded?

I always dreamed of starting a two wheeler taxi service in India to solve road congestion and the dire infrastructure situation